Roofing element



Sept. 6, 1 938..

T. ROBINSON ROOFING ELEMENT Filed NOV. 25, 1936 ATTORNEYS UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROOFING Thomas Robinson,

Lancaster Processes corporation of Smithtown,

Inc., New York, N. New York ELEMENT N. Y., assignor to Y., :1.

Application November 25, 1936, Serial No. 112,647

12 Claims.

This invention relates to prepared roofing elements and is concerned more particularly with a novel product differing in construction from and oifering numerous advantages over similar 5 elements as now made.

The newproduct tic composition and of spaced air chambers withcontains a plurality in it and lying inwardly from the These air chambers are during the producti not only reduce its insulating qualities,

and rigidity. Because istics, the new pro is made of a hardened plas-, has a plate-like body which faces thereof. formed in such a way on of the element, that they weight and increase its heat but also add to its stiffness of these latter characterduct may be made in sizes larger than ordinarily used and laid with an unusually large expos tween the butts of courses with the exposure some instances, be

appearance of the roof, I provide ure. Since the spacing beelements laid in successive referred to, might in objectionable because of the the new element with one or more transverse depressions in its upper face and in the exposure area, these depressions having a wall corresponding to and resembling the butt end of the element. The

depressions thus give the exposed part of the unit element and reduce contract in width.

the appearance of being formed of a pluordinary exposures. The the exposed end of the any tendency it may have to For a better understanding. of the invention,

Figure 1 is a plan view (1 to the accompanying drawof one of the new elements with a portion broken away;

Figures 2 and Figured is Figure 1, but

3 are sectional views on the lines '2--2 and 3-3, respectively,

a sectional view on the line 2-2 of illustrating a modified form of the of Figure 1;

element of the invention;

Figure 5 is made of the elements ened plastic material,

a sectional view through a roof illustrated in Figure 4;

7, and 8 are plan views of roofs manner of application of the new product is made of a hardsuch as a fibrous bituminous mastic, and I prefer to employ for the purpose the composition described and claimed in my co-pending application, December 16, 1935,

Serial No. Milli, filed now Patent No. 2,072,686.

The composition referred to consists of asphalt of. a suitable melt p oint, water, and a stabilizing substantially of elementary fibres or small fibre bundles, distributed substantially uniformly and homogeneously therethrough.

In the formation of the new product, the plastic material is shaped, preferably by an extrusion operation, to the form of a sheet of uniform thickness and of indefinite length having spaced air chambers within it, the product so formed being that disclosed in my co-pending application Serial No. 112,478, filed November 24, 1936. This sheet is then cut into units of desired sizes and subjected to final shaping operations.

The roofing element illustrated in Figure l is produced by the method described and it includes a plate-like body In which may be of any suitable dimensions, such, for example, as from two feet to four feet wide, and from two feet to four feet long, and of any desired and appropriate thickness. Within the body is a series of spaced parallel air chambers H which are preferably round or oval in cross-section and spaced inwardly a substantial distance from the upper and lower faces of the body. Thus, as illustrated in Fig. 3, the vertical dimension of the chambers may be about one-half the thickness of the body, and each of the layers 92 and it of material lying, respectively, above and below the chambers may have a thickness equal to about one-quarter of that of the body. The chambers lie with their axes in a central plane through the body and extend substantially from one end of the body to the other. At its ends i i and iii, the body may be provided with end walls partially or completely closing the ends of the chambers and at the end l5, which is the end of the element to be exposed when the element is laid in the usual way, and may, therefore, be considered the butt end, the end wall preferably completely closes the chambers and provides an integral connection between the upper and lower layers i2, it. The body has generally flat upper and lower faces and may be of uniform thickness throughout the portion it which is to be overlain by the elements of may be tapered, as indicated at it in Fig. 4.

When a roofing element having a length of 2 feet is laid with the usual 3 inch head-lap, the exposure is approximately 10%; inches, and this exposure may be objectionable with respect to the appearance of the roof, in the case of small higher courses, or it" applied as to overlie ordinary roofing buildings. Accordingly, the new roofing element is so formed that,.although it may be laid with the unusually large exposure referred to, it gives the roof the appearance of being covered with roofing elements laid with the normal exposure. This result is attained by forming one or more depressions l8 in the upper face of the element adjacent the butt end, the elements illustrated in the drawing having two such depressions. These depressions extend across the element from side to side and lie generally parallel and, if desired, the depressions may be straight, as indicated at E9 (Fig. 7), or may be wavy, as indicated at 20 (Fig. 1), the butt end edge being also wavy in the latter case.

The depressions referred to are formed by applying pressure to the body by suitable means while the mastic is warm and plastic, and in the formation of the depressions, the walls of the air chambers beneath them are forced together to such an extent that the air chambers are partially or completely interrupted. Preferably, the pressure applied to form the depressions is such that the upper and lower walls of the chambers are forced into contact and become substantially merged, and the means employed for applying pressure to the upper face of the elements in the formation of the depressions is so shaped that each depression has a wall 2| remote from the end wall l of the element, which closely resembles that end wall in appearance. After the units have been formed as described, they are finished by the application of suitable surfacings. Thereafter, they are allowed to harden and are then ready for use.

In covering a roof with the new elements, they may be laid in various ways as, for example, the

elements may be placed side by side in overlapping courses, as indicated in Fig. 6, with the joints 22 between the elements 23 in each course covered by elements 24 in the next higher course. Preferably, the elements of, the third course 25 are so the elements in the second lower course, thus providing head-lap. In laying the elements in a course, adjacent elements are so placed that their end edges 26, 26 are in substantial alignment, and the ends of their corresponding depressions 21, 21 are substantially in registry. The ends 28 of the elements of the next higher course are then spaced from the highest depressions in the elements of the course beneath by a distance approximating that between'adjacent depressions in each element. When the entire roof is covered with elements applied in this manner, the aligned depressions cast substantially the same shadow as the exposed ends of the elements so that the roof has the appearance of being covered by a great many elements laid in courses and with relatively small exposure. Also, if the elements have wavy depressions and similar butt ends, the roof has the general appearance of a thatched roof.

The appearance of a roof covered with elements having straight butt ends and depressions is illustrated in Fig. 7 and it will be noted that a roof so formed has the appearance of one covered with elements laid with the usual relatively small exposure.

Instead of laying the elements as illus: ated in Figs. 6 and 7, the method shown in Fig. 8 may be employed, in which the elements of each course, such as those designated 29, are overlapped only by the elements of one higher course, as indicated by the element 30. In this case, the joint 3i between a pair of adjacent elements is protected by a strip 32 of roofing felt, or the like, applied before the elements are placed in position. Also, for a roof of this type, the elements need not be so long, or, if desired, elements of the same length as those previously described may be employed, but with more than two transverse depressions per element.

The new element containing the air chambers is relatively stifi and rigid and in those respects resembles the chambered sheet material described in my copending application, Serial No. 112,478, filed November 24, 1935. It also has excellent insulating qualities because of the presence of the air chambers within it, and the formation of the depressions across the air chambers both adds to the strength of the element and lessons its tendency to contract in width with changes in temperature conditions.

Since the new element may be laid with greater than normal exposure, it may be applied at less expense, because, for a given roof area, fewer elements are required to be laid and fewer nails to be driven. Also, the roof thus produced has less joints and the possibility of leakage is thereby reduced. The new material is cheap and easy to manufacture and the several advantages resulting from the possibility of laying it with greater exposure are not gained in any way at the expense of the appearance of the roof.

While I have described the roofing element of the invention as comprising a plate-like body having air chambers with it and spaced'inwardly from the faces thereof, many of the advantages of the invention can be obtained by forming the body with air chambers which are open through one face of the body, preferably theface to be laid downward. With such a construction, the chambers form channels in the under side of the element. Similarly, the depressions in the upper surface of the element can be employed in connection with elements which do not have air chambers, but a chambered element is preferred since it is stifl'er'and lighter than a solid element of the same dimensions.

I claim:

1. A roofing element which comprises a platelike body of hardened plastic material provided with a series of spaced parallel air chambers within it between the faces thereof, said body having a depression extending across it adjacent one end thereof, portions of the chambers lying between said end and the depression.

2. A roofing element which comprises a platelike body of hardened plastic material provided with a series of spaced parallel air chambers within it between the faces thereof, said body having an end wall substantially closing the chambers and having a depression in its upper face extending across it adjacent said end wall, portions of the chambers lying between said end and the depression.

3. A roofing element which comprises a platelike body of hardened plastic material provided with a series of spaced parallel air chambers within it between the faces thereof, said body having an end wall substantially closing the chambers and having a depression in its upper face extending across it adjacent said end wall, the wall of said depression remote from said end wall having substantially the same appearance as said end wall and portions of the chambers 1ying between the depression and said end wall.

4. A roofing element which comprises a platelike body of hardened'plastic material provided with a series of spaced parallel air chambers within it between the faces thereof, said body having a transverse depression in one face adjacent one end thereof, said chambers being interrupted beneath said depression.

5. A roofing element which comprises a platelike body of hardened plastic material provided with a series of spaced parallel air chambers within it between the faces thereof, said body having a transverse depression within that portion of the face of the body which is exposed when the element is laid in the usual way with others in overlapping courses, the chambers each being interrupted by the depression.

6. A roofing element which comprises. a platelike body of hardened plastic .material provided with a series of spaced parallel air chambers within it between the faces thereof, said body having a plurality of generally parallel transverse depressions within that portion of the face of the body which is exposed when the element is laid in the usual way with others in overlapping courses, the chambers each having one wall deformed beneath the depressions.

'7. A roofing element which comprises a platelike body of hardened plastic materialprovided with a plurality of series of spaced parallel air chambers within it between the faces thereof,-

the chambers of each series lying'in alignment with those of the adjacent series and said body having a depression in one face in registry with the space between adjacent series of chambers.

8. A roofing element which comprises a plate-' like body of hardened plastic material provided with a plurality of spaced parallel air chambers within it between the faces thereof, the body having a generally flat upper face and an end wall substantially closing the air chambers, said face having a depression extending across it adjacent said end wall with the bottom of the depression lying below the tops of the air chambers in the body at one side of the depression.

9. A roofing element which comprises a platelike body of hardened plastic material and of decreasing thickness from one end of the body toward the other, said body having a plurality of spaced parallel air chambers within it between the faces thereof and a wall at the thick end of the body substantially closing the chambers, said body also having a depression extending across it in its upper face adjacent the thick end.

10. A roof formed of a plurality of roofing elements laid side by side in overlapping courses, each of said elements comprising a plate-like body of hardened plastic material having a plurality of spaced parallel air chambers within it between the faces thereof and having at least one transverse depression in its upper face and in that part of said face lying exposed by the elements in the next higher course, the chambers being interrupted beneath said depression, the

adjacent elements in each course lying with their exposed ends in substantial alignment and with the ends of their depressions substantially in registry.

11. A roof form ments laid side by d of a plurality of roofing eleside in overlapping courses,

each of said elements comprising a plate-like body of hardened plastic material having a plurality of spaced parallel air chambers within it between the faces thereof and having two spaced transverse depressions in its upper face, the chambers being interrupted beneath each depression, each course of elements being laid to expose both depressions in the elements of the next lower course beyond the ends "of the elements in the higher course and the elements in each course lying with their exposed ends in substantial alignment and with the ends of their depressions substantially in registry.

12. A roofing element which comprises a platelike body of hardened fibrous bituminous mastic having a plurality of spaced air chambers within it between the faces thereof and a depression extending across the body in the upper face thereof beneath said depression.

THOMAS ROBINSON. 

